Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner - Day 2

 Spreading out cooking over 2 days really is the best.  No waking up before dawn to rush to get everything done by dinner.  The whole family slept in until 8AM, and we had a leisurely breakfast.  I didn't start cooking until after 11AM.  The first thing my daughter and I made was "Bread in a Bag".  We made it for the first time in May as part of her homeschool preschool curriculum.  

It's pretty fun, because she gets to squish it around in the bag to mix, and then also gets her hands all messy kneading the dough.  It tastes really good!  (I guess I forgot to take a finished picture, but it is in the picture with all the other food on the table later.)

While the bread was in the oven, we used food coloring to make orange icing for the cupcakes.  Buying an icing dispenser was such a great investment.  

Next was the homemade macaroni and cheese.  We've been saving a block of Velveeta cheese my mom sent in a package.  It's funny how things that seem so simple to make in the US can become so complicated living overseas.  

I made a super simple apple cider in the crockpot with apple juice and cinnamon sticks.  I even had a few hours to spare to wrap my son's birthday presents and facetime with both sets of grandparents, without any worry about cooking.  I threw some green beans in a pot with bacon pieces and salt and some corn with butter and salt, about 30 minutes before our guests were supposed to arrive.  I heated up the stuffing in the oven and the mashed potatoes in the microwave.  A few stirs and putting some things into prettier bowls, and everything was ready!

The finished Thanksgiving buffet, complete with a rotisserie chicken and cranberry jam!  :)

Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner - Day 1

I thought it would be fun to keep a journal from cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  A few days ago, I made a menu, grocery list, and plan for when to cook which dish.  It's a bit of a juggling act with a small oven and only one burner that works at full temperature.  I've learned over the years that it takes 2 full days of cooking - and that it's much easier to use a rotisserie chicken instead of turkey, especially when living in a foreign country.

Wednesday morning - Sausage Stuffing

I got this recipe from a friend several years ago, and even though it is a LOT of work, it is completely worth it.  If I lived in America, I would probably still use a box of Stovetop stuffing, but this homemade recipe with ground pork is incredible.  

In Romania, it is possible to find celery, but much more common to use the celery root (shown above), called telina.  A couple of Romanian friends helped me learn how to use it - you need a very sharp knife, and it helps to add a carrot or two for flavor.  It takes a long time to chop the vegetables so small.

This year, my 4-year-old daughter helped me cut the bread into cubes.  She did a great job at first, but got tired as she was cutting all 16 pieces of bread.  Her pieces got bigger and bigger, but she finished it all!  I am so proud of her.  Unfortunately, when I asked her to hold the bowl to let Mommy take a picture, she spilled some on the floor.

My husband was, as usual, my hero and cleaned up all the bread.  He also cut more and made sure it was all in small cubes.

The main ingredients

Wednesday afternoon - Cupcakes and Mashed Potatoes

We had another mishap while getting out the ingredients for cupcakes.  Luckily, the cupcake paper baking cups were still inside a Ziploc bag, when my daughter busted an egg on them.  My mom sent the cake mix and a can of icing for my son's birthday, which this year is on Thanksgiving day.  

Licking the beater :)

It's much easier to get the cake batter into the mini size cups with the icing dispenser.  

Both kiddos got to lick the bowl :)

I will put the icing on the cupcakes tomorrow.

I only make mashed potatoes for special occasions, because it is so much work, especially with small potatoes.  But it is always worth it.

Licking the beaters one more time :)

Overall, I feel like I planned well so far.  I even sat down to watch a Christmas movie while the stuffing was in the oven, and I was still finished cooking for the day by 7PM.  Tomorrow we will make homemade bread, homemade macaroni and cheese, green beans, corn, and apple cider.  I'm looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving and my son's birthday.

Hot Weather Teaching Capsule Wardrobe Aug-Sept 2020

I jokingly told my husband the other day that you can tell when I'm excited about something when I start planning what I'm going to wear.  I'm excited about the opportunity to teach a couple high school math classes at a local Christian school this year.  Who knows if it will end up being in person or online, but I had fun planning my wardrobe nonetheless.  Tomorrow I will get the textbooks, so I can start planning the actual teaching part.

Hot weather makes it more difficult to keep things interesting, because you can't use layers as much.  The first thing I did was take out all the clothes I had put away when I was pregnant with my second.  I had left a lot of my clothes put away even after he was born, because I am still breastfeeding, so I've needed only the clothes that are nursing friendly.  Since I'll be teaching and I don't really nurse him much during the day anymore, I pulled out a lot of old dresses that I'm excited to wear again.  Some of the clothes are a *little* tight, since I've struggled with losing the baby weight, but I was surprised at how much I can wear again.

First, I started with my color palette: cream, brown, olive, teal, coral, floral, and leopard.  I bought some leopard print pointed toe flats this summer, and I'm excited to get to use them.  I made a list of all the clothes I have that are those colors and are dressy enough to teach in them.  I chose 3 silhouettes: dress, blouse/skirt, and blouse/pants.  Then I made a list of my dresses, blouses, and skirts/pants.

 1. white dress, 2. floral dress, 3. olive wrap dress, 4. olive t-shirt dress, 5. teal wrap dress

 1. cream blouse, 2. floral blouse, 3. coral blouse, 4. teal blouse

1. coral skirt, 2. olive jersey skirt, 3. olive dressy skirt, 4. brown jersey maxi skirt
5. brown corduroy midi skirt, 6. brown midi skirt, 7. brown cropped wide leg pants, 8. brown dress pants

Next I make a list of basic looks.  Each dress is obviously a look all on its own.  Then I listed each blouse with the bottoms that would look good with it, for a total of 19 distinct looks.  After that, I looked at the possible color combinations and what outfits I could make for each one from the clothes that I have.  I put an asterisk beside the ones I liked the best, then I started putting together the looks using the Stylebook app.

Here are the looks I came up with:

After that I started putting them on the calendar.  I will be teaching 3 days per week.  I'm not sure which days yet, so I just put the outfits on Mon/Wed/Fri for now.  I was careful not to wear the same pieces or color combinations in a row.

Here is my plan:

I'm pretty happy with my plan overall.  Some of the clothes I will need to see how practical they are, since I haven't worn them in a while.  I may also end up needing to add a sweater/scarf toward the end of September.

The best part of pre-planning my wardrobe is that it frees my mind up to focus on what's really important - teaching my students.  Also, it helps in the morning, which is always a crazy time with two little kids.

Tomorrow I will start lesson planning!  I can't believe I'm teaching again after such a long break.  I'm looking forward to it.